Project Title: Co-Operative Empowerment of Rights Activation in Young Adults (Refugees/Asylum Seekers) And Their Communities to Tackle Hate Speech And Discrimination in Media And Press
Project Duration: 2022-2025
General Purpose: The project aims to develop a non-formal, youth-led program to empower young refugees and migrants as agents of change who can contribute their expertise to the inclusion process and promote their self-representation and diversity in the media.
The objective behind our efforts is to provide refugees, asylum seekers, journalists, media professionals, and social activists with valuable competencies to face editorial challenges like fake news/alternative facts, infomercials vs. information, freedom of speech, and hate speech and help them to develop diversity and pluralism in media.
Project Outputs
- The “Press It” best practices e-publication will allow media professionals to explore how refugees and asylum seekers are reported on in other countries where they are no longer solely depicted as the “others”, spoken about and represented in the image as silent actors, victims or criminals. This e-resource will highlight rights-based journalism practices.
- “Press Play” documentary theatre will portray cooperation between refugees and media professionals. This catalyst of change can reduce fear on both sides: the fear inside hosting societies who imagine masses of strangers entering their countries and do not acknowledge the refugees’ experiences and culture, and the fear among asylum seekers and refugees who face the dangers of arriving voiceless. It will represent its actors in a frank and unique way that attracts the media’s and public’s attention in order to create a discussion regarding concepts of representation and cohabitation in the new era of media.
- “Press Ups” training for young refugees will provide non-formal learning opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers to speak for themselves instead of being represented by others. They will be better engaged with the media and will form a network of professionally trained spokespersons and media consultants for their communities.
- In order to avoid the oversimplification of refugees' experiences, cast on refugees' and asylum seekers' experiences, the Storyco-op will develop an innovative, alternative, and transformative news game “Press On” for refugees and asylum seekers to know how to explain the complexity of their lives while being interviewed by media.
- “Press Forward” from practice to the policy will include a compilation of recommendations for youth-led organizations, NGOs working with the target group, and media professionals, with an eye toward the next iteration in preparation and implementation of the project results.
Project Partners:
The SCOOP Foundation (Ireland),
The Gaiety School of Acting, The National Theatre School of Ireland (Ireland),
ONE BRIDGE TO IDOMENI Onlus (Italy)
ELLINIKO FOROUM PROSFIGON (Greece)
Rawdanur Dernegi (Turkey)
